


nostalgia sonatina

by PersonalityTest



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, it's college au I wrote it so please cuff me so I can't barf 10k words ever again, nothing else just fluff, you're in college you're in college everyone's in college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 09:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19206376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PersonalityTest/pseuds/PersonalityTest
Summary: College sucks, and Kirito doesn't know why all of this is happening to him. And yeah, he is a liar and a coward, and he’s been whiffing on this for ten years now, but, you know, in the heat of the moment, when thunder and lightning comes, all of that jazz. College AU.





	nostalgia sonatina

**Author's Note:**

> It's college AU. It's fluff. It's KiriYuji. I don't ever write anything else. Most of this fic was written on Cytus II's ConneR song playlist, which is scary because the playlist is 24 minutes and this thing is 11k+ words. Have fun. 
> 
> Title is from a song in that playlist, but my inspiration was actually from another song from that playlist called Instinct. I love Cytus II, especially the classical electronic songs. I never even knew classical electronic existed, but now I'm in love. Please check out the songs, you won't regret it. Cytus II has something for everyone.

See, now, college is hard.

It’s true. There’s none of those Hollywood-movie-like things where six-pack athletes and sun-kissed hot blonde girls just go partying every week and then end up with an A after a cramming montage. Real college is something out of every kid’s nightmare: morning classes, professors who don’t take kindly to napping in the middle of class, codes that make your eyes bug out (heh), and worst of all, roommates slash best childhood friends who insist on doing a weekly dinner thing to catch up because they’re just as swamped with work. Sometimes they would go days without seeing each other, and for some reason Eugeo decided that this is not a good thing, because he’s a cute sentimental idiot like that.

So here they are, standing around their little square dining table, squabbling about the weekly dinner. Of course, since this week’s designated cook is Kirito, they just agree to go eat out instead of bothering to try and make anything.

“That’s not at all a compliment, so wipe that grin off your face.” Alice says in a severe tone, flicking his forehead with her index finger. “What’s the point of assigning him to cooking duty when he can do nothing but boil pasta?”

The last question is directed at Eugeo, who shrugs helplessly while scrolling his phone to find some good restaurants near their place.

“It made sense at the time. Plus, if not we’ll have to brainstorm some other things for him to do. It’s a pain.”

“Pasta is a perfectly reasonable dinner choice. It has a real homey feeling, says so on the box.” Kirito interjects in an indignant tone. “Plus, I’m insulted you think so little of my skills. I make _good_ pasta.”

It’s ludicrous enough that even Eugeo rolls his eyes. “You make plain pasta. There’s a difference. Oh, how about Italian? There’s a place around ten minutes’ walk from here.”

“I’m not particularly in the mood for Italian.” Alice says at the same time as Kirito scowls. “I’ll show you plain when I kick your ass in Ultimate Fantasy XIV Online, just wait and see.”

“No fair, you’re obsessed with that game -“

“Ahem.” Alice’s voice has gotten a whole too degrees colder and fifty percent more impatient. “I’d like to eat actual food some time this century, so if you two morons are done with your dick measuring contest…”

“Mine is clearly better.” He mutters sullenly.

“We weren’t – shut up, Kirito!” Eugeo blushes red to his ears.

Fifteen minutes later, they decide on kaiten sushi. Kirito orders so much that his plate count by the end is more than Eugeo and Alice combined. Since it’s his turn, though, he happily shells out a good few thousand yen and dumps them on the plastic tray at the cashier before they take their leave. The three of them take the scenic route home past Higashi-Yatsuyama Park, stop at the vending machine to buy drinks – Peach Horoyoi for Alice, CC Lemon for Eugeo, and Kirito sticks with plain black coffee, because he's boring like that. 

When they get home, Kirito puts up a movie on the TV, Eugeo brings some pillows and a huge comforter, and Alice takes out the chips she went to buy at the 7-11 around the corner that afternoon. They huddle together under the blanket, eating chips and laughing at the ridiculous bits, and all three of them fall asleep halfway through the movie so no one knows what actually happens at the end. In the morning, they clean up the mess and ask each other ‘you remember what happened?’ ‘nah’, and that’s that. They should pick shorter movies, really.

That’s how their routine goes. It’s been the same every week ever since they started college and moved in this little space the three of them carved out for themselves, in a corner of this bustling metropolis people call Tokyo and Kirito jokingly calls hell on earth, only with more girls in skimpy maid costumes. Eugeo snorts. Alice sighs and calls him a moron.

Honestly, if he looks at it that way, suddenly college doesn’t seem all that bad.

 

* * *

 

The share house they live in is a cozy little thing, a two-story building in a small corner of Shinagawa City, three to four blocks away from Higashi-Yatsuyama Park. It takes fifty minutes to commute to the main school building on the Keihin-Tohoku and Marunouchi lines, which is good because Kirito likes some time to catch up on his mobile games on the way to school, and bad because he gets to experience what a canned sardine feels like in those fifty minutes.

“That’s on you for taking morning classes, though.” Alice says, utterly uncaring to his plight. “Eugeo and I take noon and early afternoon classes. We do fine for ourselves.”

They are sitting at the little dining table, relaxing in the soft sunlight of a February afternoon. Usually Kirito would spend the entire Saturday playing games and generally doing a very good imitation of a shut-in, but he figures today he could go out and have a conversation with an actual living, breathing person for once. Too bad Eugeo is out grocery shopping right now, since this week is his turn to do the weekly dinner. He said he wanted to make oden, and to be honest Kirito is kind of looking forward to it. He hasn’t had some in a while.

Now that he remembers it, back when they started this tradition, they used to do the shopping together on Saturday afternoons, but found that they spent more time bickering and arguing over what food to make and brand to get than actual shopping. Now they just agree on something, one person buys the food and makes it, and the cycle repeats next week. Except for Kirito, of course, since he has the cooking ability of a pickle. The pickle might even be better.

“Science and technology major classes are all in the early morning.” He points out. “I dare you to find an afternoon class. It’s like the school is hell bent on making us suffer. You law and chemistry majors don’t get it.”

She doesn’t even look up, and instead just keeps scribbling away at her papers. Something law exam that’s about to come up next week, he doesn’t know. “You can go take it up with the school board. I would represent you in court, but you can’t afford me.”

“I can totally –“ He starts, indignantly, but the sound of a door closing interrupts his train of thought.

“I’m home!” Eugeo calls out from the entrance. “Kirito, if you’re here, come help me bring in the groceries!”

“What? No fair! Alice is stronger!” He yells back, but stands up anyway. Alice is busy studying, and making a girl carrying stuff for him would pretty much erase all his pride as a man. If he says that out loud, though, Alice will either laugh or talk his ears off about gender stereotypes and unrealistic expectations, so Kirito wisely keeps his mouth shut.

When he gets over there, Eugeo has so many bags hanging off his arms that he looks more like a discount Christmas tree than a person. Kirito doesn’t know how he carried all of that home in one piece, but he knows with a stunning resignation that he lives with a bunch of gorillas.

“Come on, work those noodle arms.” Eugeo smiles teasingly at his grimace. “I don’t think I’ve seen you use the gym downstairs even once. Want to come with me some time?”

Yeah, no, he doesn’t need the image in his mind, shut up, brain. “…No thanks, I – whoa, this is heavy! Eugeo-kun, how could you do this to me?”

Eugeo rolls his eyes and smiles slightly. He does it a lot, because Kirito is ridiculous and hopelessly in love and tries his best to make stupid, outrageous jokes to see the smile on the other boy’s face. “You’ll live. Here, take these too. These ones are vegetables. That other one has milk and ice cream in it.”

“Did you get the Neapolitan one I wanted?” Alice looks up from the dining table. Oh, so _now_ she pays attention.

“Yeah.” Eugeo says as he rifles through some other bags. “You like that brand, uh, Deemon, right? It was the last one, too. Well, their Neapolitan tastes surprisingly good, so I’m not surprised.”

“Right? I didn’t think so at first either, but somehow Deemon makes chocolate, strawberry and vanilla work. Hold on, I’ll be right over, just need to finish this page.”

“No worries, take your time. Kirito, put this one over there, will you?”

“How come I don’t get to ‘take my time’?” He complains. Eugeo gives him a _look_ , which makes him wilt like a flower and do what he’s told. Not because he’d jump on the train tracks of Shinagawa Station if Eugeo told him to or something, nope, because who even _does_ that. No one, and definitely not Kirito, because he has this thing called dignity, and no matter what Alice says it isn’t completely dead just yet. Maybe in a week or two.

Anyway, he finishes putting everything in the fridge – Eugeo, that slave driver. His arms burn from the exertion, and he turns to glare at Eugeo, who chooses that moment to clap him on the back and flash him a grin brighter than the sunlight itself. Kirito makes a noise he would never admit is a high-pitched squeak and jumps back half a meter, and yep, there goes the last of his dignity. Rest in peace, you will be missed.

Eugeo looks confused. Alice stares at them both and shakes her head just slightly.

 

* * *

 

See, the thing about it is, it’s not Eugeo’s fault Kirito is a hopeless lovesick idiot who can’t spit it out.  

In all fairness, in the tech department, if you have a girlfriend, you’re a _normie_. It’s a sin worse than murder, arson _and_ jaywalking. You get looked upon like an alien, and the guys gossip like office ladies about how they’re jealous of you while shooting away on Far Cry and eating 100-yen conbini chips. Also while complaining about how girls are hard and how much they want a girlfriend, or maybe how much they spent on their waifu in this popular mobile game. It’s usually in the tens of thousands of yen.

…Yeah, it’s bad. Just look at Nochizawa Eiji-senpai, who for the love of whatever is holy won’t shut up about his girlfriend. He’s pretty much a cautionary tale about how not to get the entire class to huddle up like old biddies and tease you mercilessly about it. For what it’s worth, despite all that teasing he still talks about her constantly, which Kirito thinks is cute but he’ll never admit it to anyone.

He allows himself to think about what would happen if, only if, in a one-in-fifty-million chance, he and Eugeo became a thing. The entire department would know the second it happens. There would be riots. Someone will hijack the school newspaper and put it on the front page while the rest of the student body wonder why these nerds are on the news. It would one hundred percent put Kirito on the spotlight as one of the _Normies_ , capital N, and he might as well kiss his privacy and reputation goodbye.

“You, my friend,” the man sitting opposite to him says, with an eye roll for added emphasis. “Are an overdramatic idiot.”

“I’m telling you, that’s exactly what will happen.” He insists. Klein does another one of his eye rolls and took a slow sip of his coffee – with milk and sugar, because apparently it’s legal for an adult to do. In his humble opinion, it shouldn’t be. “That’s going to be my legacy.”

“Right, yeah. Getting some balls and finally dating the guy you like will be your legacy, and not that time when you beat Kayaba-sensei’s super-ultra-mega hard RPG in record time with a cheat code, as a freshman no less. You are a legend. I still tell the story to my first years. It feels like it was just yesterday that I met this cute, scrawny kid…”

“Don’t you TAs have anything to do other than gossip about the rest of us poor bastards?”

“Excuse me, have you seen this department? If you’re not coding, you’re debugging code. If you’re not debugging code, you’re playing PvP games and shit-talking your classmates on voice chats.”

…Well yeah, that’s true. Since Klein is the TA for Network Architecture and it’s a required class, all the kids in the tech department go through him. He’s probably seen all of them. It would be impressive if this wasn’t his third year in graduate school…so he’s spent seven years here. Seven years wasted on this yammering gossip mine. Kirito can’t even imagine it.

“What, a guy can’t TA on his spare time?” Klein says when he tells him that. “I like you kids. It’s continuing education, so my company pays for it. As long as I do my job and the system doesn’t blow up, they don’t care if I leave at 3 to try and excavate what you call a brain but actually looks more like a dry lakebed full of dead gaping fish.”

“…How high are you on coffee? Rather, how many hours has it been since you last slept?”

“Time is a social construct, but enterprise databases aren’t. Listen, Kirito,” Klein says, very seriously. “You gotta tell this kid. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Is he serious? Everything! “I live with him!”

“Oh, right. Let me know if you need soundproof walls. I know a guy.”

“Why would I need soundproof – god, ew, that’s _gross_. Don’t even go there.”

“That’s what she said – or rather, he said, in your case.” Klein winks, and god, Kirito would pay anything to make this conversation not happen. Why is this happening to him?

“I’m leaving. _Now_.”

 

* * *

 

Okay, alright, backtrack. Here’s how it happened. It was middle school. Yes, he’s been in a crush since middle school to the end of college. Hardy har har. His life is a cosmic joke, and Eugeo is the punchline. Punchline, as in he would love a punch to the gut so he doesn’t feel all those butterflies fluttering about whenever he even glances at his best friend’s direction. It’s sappy, it’s cheesy, he’s never felt more like a fifteen-year-old girl, and most of all it’s like his brain is finally jumping off a cliff. Romance is evil.

So right, middle school. They’ve known each other for a while. Kirito’s family moved to the neighborhood when he was six. There were two other kids his age. They became best friends and the absolute terror of the block, because Kirito and Eugeo are trouble magnets and Alice doesn’t do much to keep them out of it. Their dynamic has been the same for twelve plus years; Kirito suggests something ludicrous and/or possibly slightly illegal, Eugeo tries to talk him out of it but ends up roped in anyway, and Alice shakes her head while calling them morons but she secretly likes their antics, he’s pretty sure.

Honestly, now that he thinks back, it was the stupidest little thing. He was around ten or eleven, and just found out that his parents weren’t really his parents at all. He locked himself in his room even more than usual, said about three words a day, and started to dig himself into a video-game grave. So, like any reasonable kid worried about his friend would do, Eugeo climbed through his window one day and scared the crap out of Kirito. They sat there and talked for three hours about all sorts of things. Alice was acing her English exams. The mean rich kids in the next block, Humbert and Raios, apparently got bitten by a spider. They, as in Eugeo and Alice, missed him, and was something wrong? Eugeo would always be here to listen to him, because they were friends, best friends, and he would never abandon him.

So Kirito did the only logical thing a lonely, emotionally stunted eleven-year-old could think of. He started to cry and told Eugeo between hiccups and ugly sneezes about his parents, and Eugeo patted his head and told him about how it must have been hard, but his parents loved him and cared for him and wasn’t that the only thing that mattered? It made him think a lot, about how he’s grown up to eleven years old without knowing he was adopted, and that was infinitely a better fate than Eugeo’s, whose family situation was…not that great, to be honest. They stayed like that for a bit, thoughts running in his mind at a million miles an hour, until Kirito fell asleep from exhaustion and Eugeo left through the window after making sure to put a blanket on him.

The next day, he finally stepped foot out of his room. When Midori-san – _Mom_ – asked him if something was wrong, he shook his head and said no, he was just tired. She told him to cut down on games, and he could finally see the worry in her eyes that the Kirito a week ago would have been blind to. He said yes and asked what was for dinner, turning his face away so she wouldn’t see tears prickling at his eyes.

The day after that, he deactivated his online game accounts. He still liked games, but he no longer felt like a stranger in his own life, and with that thought it seemed like he could breathe easier, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Everything around him seemed to be just a little bit brighter, Eugeo most of all among them.

And yep, that’s how it started, and it only went downhill from there. Honestly, if he ever sits down and writes an autobiography, that would be the opening line.

 

* * *

 

For some reason, Eugeo is Quinella-sensei’s favorite, though he’s privately told Kirito that she kind of creeps him out. However, the Chemistry I TA position was too sweet a deal to turn down, and since he’s planning to go to med school, he needs a glowing recommendation letter from a professor. Kirito can see why it is a good idea, but he’s met Quinella-sensei once and she scared the heebie-jeebies out of him. He doesn’t know how Eugeo puts up with her on a daily basis.

One good thing about it though, Eugeo gets his own office. It’s a small room on the third floor of the East Clinical Research Building, to the left of the elevators. This building is always so dark and the corridors narrow, which Kirito isn’t used to because the main building for Science and Technology majors, on virtue of being the newest complex on campus, is all glass and glossy, polished hardwood. This school definitely pours a good portion of its grant money into the tech department. As he contemplates that fact, he finally gets to Eugeo’s office, room…302, if he remembers right. He’s visited Eugeo a few times (read: barged in unannounced) but lately his friend just seems so busy that Kirito doesn’t want to bother him too much. He lightly raps on the door and waits.

“Tiese, I didn’t know you’d be here so early – oh, Kirito.” Eugeo looks surprised as he opens the door. His glasses are slightly askew, and Kirito resists the strong urge to fix it for him.

Wait… Kirito’s heart sinks down to his stomach. Tiese? As in that girl in the first year chem class Eugeo is TA-ing for, the one he says has a crush on him? Crap, does this mean she’s coming to his office hours to get the chance to speak with him? Kirito can’t help but admire her for her sneaky ways, but Eugeo, just…no. He’s off the market, he just doesn’t know it yet. Yep, definitely.

Now that he thinks about it, by normal standards, Eugeo is a catch. He’s good looking, one of the top students in his major, and he does kendo in his free time. Most of all, he’s single. Girls flock to him like moth to a flame. He gets so much chocolate on Valentine’s Day they could make a patisserie out of it – him and Alice both. She’s the star of the law department, so admirers come out in droves to throw chocolates at her. They can’t eat all of it, so Kirito just brings a box or two back to his room and eats them while he plays games. Last time fifteen boxes were gone in two weeks.

Kirito, on the other hand, gets three chocolate, pretty much every year. One from Alice, one from his sister Suguha, and one from his other best-friend-maybe-not-really-possibly-ex, Asuna. They dated for a while throughout high school while he was in denial about the Eugeo thing. Her parents are loaded and got her to go to college in America, they didn’t manage to do the long-distance stuff. Typical high school romance. He loved her, though. She’s the first real relationship he’s had, and maybe, after she’s done with college, since this Eugeo thing will never work out, they could get back together and try out this relationship thing again.

If she’s interested, of course. Every year she mails him a box of chocolates, and he goes bonkers trying to figure them out. He dragged Eugeo and Alice to the dining table and they sat there arguing the entire evening whether it was obligatory chocolate or not. He brought them to the tech dept’s Smash tournament and listened to shitty advice from guys who probably never talked to a girl a day in their life, and he even went to ask Eiji-senpai, who was just as clueless and finally referred Kirito to the girlfriend, Yuuna-senpai. He left that conversation with no concrete answers but feeling strangely relaxed, like he’s spent the entire day at a spa. That’s a future counselor for you.

Anyway, in other words, his love life is a bigger mess than a first year’s coding project. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t pathetic.

“Ah, yeah, I had some free time and decided to pass by.” He tells Eugeo, who glances at the clock. It’s two in the afternoon. Kirito’s classes ends at twelve, and he never stays at school past twelve-fifteen. Eugeo knows that, but just shrugs and opens the door wider to let him in.

“Sure, no problem. Make yourself comfortable. I have Tiese coming in at two-thirty though, just letting you know.”

Eugeo’s office is organized, but not to the point of being borderline neat freak like Kirito’s workspace. It’s also about the size of a thimble. Anyway, he squeezes himself into the seat that barely fits in the door and looks around. There’s a desktop on the light-colored wooden desk. On the screen is some chemical formulae that Kirito feels like he knew from high school, but chem was never something he was good at. The rest of the surface is covered in notes – Eugeo is probably studying for his midterm, and isn’t that just a few days away? Kirito hates how their university has like five exams a year, but he also knows he gets off lucky because he just needs to whip up a few dozen lines of code and debug them until they don’t look like a complete mess. He can’t imagine how Eugeo and Alice do it.

“So, what’s up? Are you feeling lonely again?” Eugeo pulls up his own chair and plops down. He grabs a few pages of notes over and starts scribbling as he talks, stopping once in a while to push his glasses up. Eugeo wears glasses when he studies, since he’s slightly short-sighted. Must be all the books he reads. Kirito won’t deny it’s super cute, though he would rather be caught dead on camera naked than say that.

“Don’t make it sound like that’s how I always am. I’m not a rabbit.” Kirito scowls.

“Yeah, sure.” Sometimes Eugeo likes to get uppity and do his best Alice impression, where he says things with sarcasm so thick Kirito could cut through it with a knife. It’s both annoying and adorable as hell. “So, are you?”

He deflates like a balloon run out of hot air. “…Maybe. But don’t call it that. I’m bored.”

 _And also I want to talk to you, because I like talking to you and looking at your smile as I joke around about random stuff_. But of course, Kirito needs like fifty more years and five more bottles of liquid courage before he would even dare to say it out loud. Eugeo looks up from his notes and steeples his fingers together, looking at him like he just grew three heads.

“Is this a CS major thing, or is it a you thing? I don’t even remember having free time ever since enrolling here. Exams, TA work, exercise, practice, hanging out, everything just comes one after another. Are you studying properly? How are your grades?”

“What are you, my mom? Also, my grades are fine. Kayaba-sensei already offered me a spot on his development team after graduation, so I just need to get C’s minimums to graduate. Apparently he’s working on this super cool VRMMORPG thing that can take the world by storm. They’re located somewhere around Setagaya, three-something hours away by train. I checked.”

“You’re a horrible student.” Eugeo says, but Kirito knows he doesn’t mean it, because he sounds almost proud. “Then, how about a hobby? Want to join the kendo club?”

Yeah, here’s the thing. He’s already imagined Eugeo in kendo. He doesn’t need to look at the real thing. Not only will he summarily kick Kirito’s ass to next Sunday, he’ll look good doing it. The fact is, Eugeo looks good doing anything. Be it cooking, studying, and especially kendo. He definitely does not want to imagine Eugeo after practice, handing Kirito a towel and using another to wipe sweat off h -

Kirito slams his head down on the table.

“Kirito, what are you doing? Are you alright?” Eugeo asks in a concerned voice, and Kirito wants to scream that no, he’s not okay, and it’s all Eugeo’s fault. Of course he can’t do that, so he digs his nails in his thighs until he’s pretty sure purple half-moon shapes are going to stay there for an entire week.

“…Nothing. And no, I’m not joining the kendo club.”

“Is that so…” Eugeo’s face falls. Kirito swallows down the guilt. “Well, you should get a hobby anyway. Maybe you could try to learn how to cook.”

“Why?” Kirito says, and he actually means it. “This is _Japan_. It’s the country that invented fried rice mix, microwavable rice packs, powdered corn soup and fifty flavors of instant ramen. This entire country hates cooking. I can go to the grocery store right now and make a house party out of ‘just add water’ instant meals. Have you seen the three cheese cream pasta pack they have?”

Eugeo’s smile is exasperated, as if he thinks Kirito’s being cute but also dumb as hell. “I mean, yeah, but that’s not the point. It’s not just about the food.”

“It is about the food.” He insists. “It’s _cooking_. You cook so that you can have food to eat. Which is a pain, if you ask me. I cannot wait until they invent a system that delivers food right next to you and it’ll just pop into existence at mealtime. It would save me so much time to finish my projects. I need to get into the mood to write code, otherwise it’s just a little mess that will take three times as much effort to debug instead of just twice as much. You get what I mean, right?”

“Um, yeah, no.” Eugeo tells him, rolling his eyes a little. “If you feel that strongly against it, you don’t have to. I’m just saying, it would be nice. You know, when I first suggested this weekly dinner thing, I was kind of looking forward to yours, but then we ended up not doing it, and I…”

Yeah, thank god he didn’t have to cook…wait, what?

“Anyway, I just thought it’d be nice.” Eugeo quickly says, his face reddening by the second. “But I guess, if cooking isn’t for you… The point stands, though. You should probably look for something to do in your free time. I know you like your major, but you’ll hate it once you have to do it every day at work. It happens to me sometimes.”

Wait, rewind. What was that? Eugeo started this weekly dinner thing because _what_ now? Kirito opens his mouth to ask, but he’s interrupted by the sound of knocking on the door.

“Eugeo-senpai, it’s me, Tiese.” A girl’s voice comes from outside. Crap, it’s two-thirty already. Damn it, wait a little longer, Tiese!

But of course, since his life never works out, Eugeo gives him an apologetic look and stands up to open the door. Kirito introduces himself, exchanges pleasantries with the girl – a tiny auburn-haired thing that barely reaches his ears even with her boots – and waves Eugeo goodbye before ducking out of the room, but not before he hears Eugeo say some kind of light joke and Tiese laughs, a tinkling, refined laugh that is absolutely lovely and pisses him off at the same time. Long after he’s left, he replays that last moment over and over in his mind and resists the urge to scream.

 

* * *

 

Here’s what their house looks like. When you open the door, the first thing you see is the dining room. There’s a small, box-shaped dining table with a light wooden surface, metal base and no glossy finish, because they’re students and being broke is in the job description. The dining chairs are nice and comfortable though, because Kirito insisted on it and god forbid he has to sit on plastic chairs and suffer more back pain than he already does.

The entire set is parallel to a huge window spanning the entire length of the wall. It gets really hot in the summer, so one day Alice went and bought a pair of thick, red linen curtains which Eugeo and Kirito agree are a tiny little bit tacky, but they value their lives too much to tell Alice that to her face. So yeah, the curtains are deep red, as if they are trying their best to offend the rest of the house’s pastel color scheme.

Aside from the curtains, everything else is just either light pink, light grey, light everything, like they’re living in a hospital, and Kirito doesn’t like that, so he went out of his way to buy a potted plant. It was something called a crassula, and it died after three weeks because Kirito couldn’t take care of a dead cat if he tried. He was still sad when it died, though, so for his last birthday Eugeo bought him a few cacti and a hedgehog-shaped pot that he can grow grass in. He’s had a lot more success this time, first because it was a gift from Eugeo – yeah, go ahead and laugh – and it turns out that he’ll get off his ass to water his plants just because that hedgehog is cute. They now sit on the windows near the dining table, which is Alice’s favorite study spot, so she waters them for him once in a while. He thinks she’s just being tsundere, and she actually really enjoys looking at them. Eugeo agrees, but also tells him never to say that to her if he wants to live.

A high-top counter separates the kitchen slash dining room from the living room. That counter is where they generally do most of their cooking – and by cooking, he means ‘actual cooking’ for Alice and Eugeo and ‘slapping together two pieces of toast and deli meat and calling it a day’ for Kirito. Eugeo is awfully particular about this counter the way he isn’t about everything else, so he nags their ears off whenever they don’t put away their dishes or wipe the countertop off after cooking. The living room is a sofa, courtesy of Alice’s dad, and a huge TV that Kirito’s mom let him take to college. Eugeo’s parents don’t do any of those things – he doubts they even saw the house – and Kirito and Alice keep their mouths shut.

So yeah, they’ve been living in this share house for more than three years now. Graduation is in a month and a half, and maybe at that time he can buy a cake and congratulate himself on being a coward who can’t spit it out for yet another four years. This would mark ten years since he first realized he had this damn crush on his best friend, and god, that’s pathetic. So for the ten year anniversary of being a wimp with no balls to his name, he decides he wants to actually cook something on their last weekly dinner before they part ways. Alice is going to a law school, Eugeo will be attending their university’s med school, and he’ll be working somewhere across town, like two-three hours away. Just something as a celebratory goodbye dinner.

Also, Eugeo looked slightly disappointed when he turned down the cooking idea, and he hates letting Eugeo down. If it means he has to grit his teeth and make something that’s not instant food, so be it.

“So, yes, that’s why I need to learn how to cook.” Kirito concludes and looks expectantly at the two girls sitting at his dining table. Suguha and her friend, Lisbeth, Engineering major and apparently the best cook his sister knows after Asuna, look at each other and then back at him.

“He’s an idiot, isn’t he?” Suguha mock-whispers, but _hello_ , he is standing right here. Lisbeth nods fervently.

“Why are all the cute ones so dumb?” The freckled girl bemoans, as if it’s somehow a national tragedy that he has a slightly passable face and the intelligence of a mentally challenged hamster.

“So are you two going to help me or not?” Kirito resists the urge to stomp his foot on the floor like a child throwing a tantrum. It’s very tempting, though.

“Oh, alright.” Sugu sighs. “You’ll never shut up about it if we don’t. You know what, I’ll call Sinon, too. She’s Criminal Justice. We met at freshman orientation. She always looks like she doesn’t have time for your bullshit, but she’s actually very nice.”

“How do you know this many people?” He looks at her, wide-eyed. Sugu snorts.

“Because you, dear brother, don’t bother to make any friends outside of your group. You’ve been like this since first grade. What did you say again…? Right, you don’t give a damn about anyone that’s not Eugeo and Alice. Especially Eugeo. Well, I get it. He’s one of the best in our kendo club, and he’s a gentleman. I’ve had freshmen girls ask me to ask you to ask him for his number. Why he sticks around you is beyond me. You’re great, don’t get me wrong, but you can also be a real pain sometimes.”

“Thanks ever so much for your praise, dear sister.” He rolls his eyes. “So, yes? When can we start?”

“Well, it depends. What do you want to make?” Sugu says, looking thoughtful. “Since you’re a complete beginner, you can probably just cop out and do hot pot or something. Fried rice is good for a group, too. Hey, don’t you have that fried rice mix in the cupboard?”

“Hmm, I’d prefer something more complex, I guess? Fried rice and hot pot sound good, but anyone can make them. It’s not really something for special occasions.”

“Ah, um, Kirito…can I call you Kirito?” Lisbeth interjects. “That’s actually the first beginner’s mistake. Beginners want to start off making something complicated, especially when it comes to cooking, and it usually fails.”

He shrugs. “It’ll be fine as long as I follow the recipe, right?”

The girls look at each other, and then back at him. Lisbeth smiles nervously.

“W-well, yes, on principle. I wouldn’t recommend it, though.”

“…Okay.” He says. “So, do you have any ideas for something that’s easy to make but doesn’t scream ‘total newbie at cooking’? Preferably something that can impress Eu – I mean, my roommates.”

Sugu gives him a _look_ , and how he hates that look. It’s the look she gives him when she thinks he’s an obvious lovesick idiot, and judging from Lisbeth’s exasperated smile, she thinks so too. When did his life become such a mess that he’s standing here being judged by two sophomore girls?

“Okay, fine,” Lisbeth finally says after a while. “There’s something that isn’t too hard but looks fancy enough that it could wow your crush – I mean, your _roommates_. Sure. Let’s go with that. Have you had a layered Chirashizushi before? It’s more commonly eaten on Girls’ Day, but I guess this counts as a special occasion.”

If he remembers right… “Ah, the sushi cake? Is it easy to make? I’ve seen one before, but it looks complicated to me.”

“No, not particularly. I could teach you, though it might take a few tries before you can do it properly. How about it, would you like to try?”

And yeah, that’s how they decided on Chirashizushi. Sugu messaged Sinon, who said she would be able to come around, and Lisbeth showed him a picture of what the cake is supposed to look like.

Okay, fancy food. He can do this. Totally. At least there’s very little actual cooking involved, so he won’t burn down the kitchen like what happened the last three times. He’s the star of the science and technology department, and if he can beat Kayaba-sensei’s absolutely unfair extra credit RPG he should have no problem with making a cake-that’s-not-a-cake.

…Hopefully.

 

* * *

 

First Chirashizushi attempt: Disaster. He put in the wrong amount of vinegar, so the rice doesn’t stick together. Once they’re done, the cake looks like it’s about to collapse like a sandcastle, so he hurries to hide it in his room before anyone comes home and laughs at him about it.

 

* * *

 

Today is a rare day when Eugeo has a morning TA session, so they take the train together. It takes around ten minutes to walk from their house to Shinagawa Station. Their rent is more expensive – around ten thousand extra per month total - because of this, but Kirito would pay that and more just so he won’t have to walk too much. Eugeo and Alice didn’t particularly care one way or another about the walk - gorillas, the lot of them - they just liked the house itself.

Anyway, they weave through alleyways and step out onto traffic, making small talk and just catching up in the meantime. A row of shops, some clothing stores but mostly ramen or dessert places, line the underground leading up to Shinagawa Station, and if Kirito were ever asked to describe the kind of stores you can find in Tokyo, this is pretty much all there is to it. There’s an UNIQLO next to a dessert place, opposite another patisserie, a few convenience stores, an ATM. There’s a shopping mall leading upstairs next to like, three coffee shops in a row, and a bunch of kiosks selling assorted goods, like gums and today’s newspapers. Kirito usually buys a coffee from a shop around here on his way to school, but today Eugeo was kind enough to make some extra coffee for him, so he doesn’t have to.

They follow the signs for Keihin-Tohoku line, stopping at a fare kiosk because Kirito only has 20 yen left on his Suica card. Finally, they reach the platform just as the train slides up, smooth as silk on a shoeshine. Japanese trains are never late, at least not as far as Kirito can remember. He imagines it’d be a national crisis if the train is late by even one minute. The mass of people file in, the door snaps closed, and so begins his least favorite part of the day. No, not school, though it comes pretty close. It’s the hour he has to spend brushing elbows with strangers in black suits – it’s always black, color is dead to the average Japanese salaryman – while losing his balance and crashing into someone’s back every time the train slows to a stop at the next station.

“Are you alright?” Eugeo whispers after the third time Kirito knocks his head into another poor soul’s shoulder. Even that whisper attracts some attention, because god forbid anyone talks on the train.

“Same old.” Kirito grits his teeth. He never can keep his balance on the train. Alice doesn’t even need to hold on to anything, and Eugeo can maintain his balance relatively well enough that he doesn’t trip on other people. It’s just Kirito who can’t get it right for some reason.

They get off at Tokyo Station and walk up a few flights of stairs, looking for the red sign for Marunouchi line. Three minutes later, the train arrive on the dot, and Kirito once again finds himself squeezing in like another sardine in a sea of black. It’s just how it is in Tokyo’s rush hour.

“Here, grab my hand.” Eugeo whispers into his ears as the doors close, quietly enough that other people can’t hear. “I’ll keep you from falling over.”

Yeah, fat chance. He’s more likely to have a heart attack. But Eugeo looks earnest, and this is a good excuse to hold hands – god, he _is_ a fifteen-year-old teenage girl – so Kirito kicks down the voice of reason screaming at him not to and grabs the other boy’s hand, just as the train starts moving and he would have tripped on someone’s shoes without Eugeo’s hand holding him firmly in place.

“Thanks.” He mouths at Eugeo, who nods and gives him a light smile. His hand is warm. They stay like that for the entirety of the train ride, and every time the train careens to a stop Eugeo’s hand tightens on his to keep him upright, while Kirito tries his best not to choke on his own spit. If his life was a comedy, this would be where they put the laugh track.

When they finally get to Hongo-sanchome Station, Eugeo lets go of his hand like he’s burned, mutters a ‘see you later’ and quickly walks ahead of him. Kirito is thankful that Eugeo won’t look at his face, because it’s about as red as a ripe tomato.

Yeah, he’s never going to school on rush hour with Eugeo again.

 

* * *

 

Second Chirashizushi attempt: not much better. For some reason the rice keeps sticking to the plastic wrap, so the cake has a bunch of holes in it at the end. Also, Sinon tells him the sliced eggs taste blander than his decor, because this is apparently his life now.

 

* * *

 

The university campus spans an area of roughly five to six blocks in the middle of Tokyo, roughly three districts wide, which is to say that it’s huge. The main entrance faces one of the town’s largest highway, Hongo-dori, and along that avenue is where most of the popular hangout spots are. Tokyo really is just a bunch of coffee shops and dessert places.

Among the ones on Hongo, Dicey Café is the most popular. It’s one block away from the Economics building, to the southwest of the main campus. Just as a reference, Kirito’s Science and Technology building is in the topmost north, and Eugeo’s East Clinical Research Center is in the far east of campus, behind the University Hospital. The three of them make a triangle of sorts. It takes him ten minutes just to make the trek from his building to the Café, but this is one of the few times he doesn’t mind walking. The bell overhead chimes as he pushes the door open.

“Hey, Kirito.” Agil waves at him. Agil is the owner of Dicey Café and a university alumni slash current student. He studied Economics for a while, made a living for himself as a salaryman for a few years, and finally settled back down around the area to open a coffee shop while attending graduate school. He’s one of the only people older than 30 in Science and Technology, so that’s where they know each other from. “Nice of you to come visit.”

“Agil.” He nods. “How are things?”

“Same old.” The older man shrugs. “One coffee, coming right up.”

He likes to come here to talk from time to time. It doesn’t hurt that the coffee is good, and while he secretly thinks some of the Café’s menu items are nigh highway robbery, they are pretty and delicious. Plus, at three in the afternoon, there are barely any people here, since good students don’t skip classes like Kirito. In a corner, a girl in glasses furiously types something in her MacBook, sipping her huge latte once in a while. A guy that looks like he’s another senior scrolls through his phone with a bored look. That’s about it. He takes a seat at the counter and takes the coffee offered to him. “Thanks.”

“Don’t sweat it. So, what brings you here at this hour?”

“Just bored.” He swirls the cup slightly, watching the liquid slosh around. “And I guess some relationship thing, if we’re being specific.”

“Ah.” Agil nods, like he’s figured it out. “Is it the girl you used to go out with, uh, Asuna, I think her name was?”

He snorts. It would have been so much easier if it were her.

“You want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly.” He sighs, and that’s the end of their conversation. Another customer comes in, so Agil leaves to take their order after promising to catch up in a bit.

Now, here’s the thing. Despite whatever Klein says, Kirito will never tell Eugeo. He’s got enough on his plate without adding Kirito to the mix. In the first place, Eugeo enrolled in this university and became a chemistry major under scholarship because he wanted to support his parents. He’s always wanted to study history instead, because he was a book nerd and still is, but he sacrificed even that for his family. Personally, Kirito doesn’t understand, but it’s not like he has a right to say anything. The least he can do is not cause his best friend any more trouble. Eugeo will finish med school and become a doctor, because he doesn’t do things half-assed, and maybe ten years down the line Kirito will wear one of his uncomfortable suits and give the best toast a best man will ever give at a wedding that he wishes was his instead. His life is such a joke.

“I knew you’d be here.” A girl slides into the seat next to him. Blond hair tied into a long braid that flows down to her waist, a smart, sensible blue sweater over a silk skirt that reaches her knees, sparkling blue eyes. His other best friend looks him up and down, like he’s something offensive her sister’s cat just dragged in.

“What are you doing here, Alice? Don’t you have classes?” He sighs. “Agil, a mocha espresso for the lady, please.”

“I finished my exam early.” She says. “And also, Selka has a friend of a friend who told her something _interesting_ about you. Does sushi ring a bell?”

He groans. His head hits the wooden surface of the counter with a dull thump. “Please, stop. Haven’t I suffered enough?”

“Not even close. It’s highly entertaining. I would love to be there on one of your next attempts.”

“I’m so glad I’m a source of entertainment for you. Really brightens up my day.”

She whacks him slightly over the head. “Don’t be a depressing grouch. If I haven’t known you for over half my life, I’d think you’re cute when you try so hard like that. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it too.”

“He’ll appreciate nothing, because I’ll tell him over my dead body.”

Neither of them say anything for a few minutes after that. Agil comes over with Alice’s drink, and they exchange pleasantries for a little bit before he wanders off to another customer. She stirs the mocha espresso absent-mindedly, until the only sound between them is the soft clinking of metal against glass and pleasant jazz music from the speakers on the wall. When it’s clear that Kirito won’t change his mind no matter what an idiot she thinks he is, Alice finally sighs and stands up.

“I have a class in fifteen minutes. I’m telling you, just think about it. It won’t hurt to tell him. All I want is for my two dumbasses to be happy.”

She smiles at that, a rare, soft smile only reserved for her idiot best friends, and lightly pats his mess of hair before waving goodbye to Agil, taking the espresso with her.

Easy for her to say. She doesn’t have to deal with this ten-year-old crush. Even if he spits it out and in a one-in-fifty-million chances everything goes right, what do they do next? Kirito has always been the type to deal with things as they go along, but he finds himself completely bewildered on how he’s supposed to handle this. Eugeo is staying in the area to attend med school, while he is leaving to Setagaya to work in Kayaba-sensei’s company. The commute is a whole two hours away, and what? Do they find another place after Alice leaves? Alice has always been a good buffer between them, so now without her he doesn’t know how to deal. Not to mention the weight of this hypothetical relationship that’s going to be between them, and the distance, that he might as well just shut his mouth and forever hold his peace.

His head hits the table with a thud. Agil spares him a concerned glance, but says nothing.

 

* * *

 

To better describe his third Chirashizushi attempt, Kirito needs to first describe what a Chirashizushi theoretically looks like.

Typically, Chirashizushi is just sushi but not in a round shape. There’s rice, raw fish, and assorted toppings. But then the Japanese is obsessed with trying to make things pretty, so that’s how the sushi cake came to be. From bottom to top, rice is packed in a cake mold in two layers, with raw fish, like salmon, and other veggies like cucumber slices or shiso leaves between them. The top layer is finally decorated with a thin spread of shredded egg crepes as well as more sashimi and fish roe to make it look like a cake.

So, on his third attempt, he finally got the rice-to-topping ratio right and the cake is actually standing. The egg strips are a little browner than he would have liked, but at least they don’t taste bland anymore, thanks so much, Alice. However, because Kirito is a lovesick idiot, he had the bright idea to make roses out of thin salmon slices for decorating, but he forgot that life hates him and the rose looks more like an unidentifiable salmon-y mess. After a few more attempts of trying to make another rose, he gives up and just starts munching on the salmon slices, since at least they taste good.

Cooking is hard. He doesn’t know how people do this.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks away from graduation, Rinko-sensei taps him on the shoulder after class – as in, one of the classes he bothers to go, sometimes. She jerks her head towards her office, and he follows her with his tail between his legs while his classmates shake their heads in sympathy.

So here’s the thing, he likes Rinko-sensei. She’s a nice lady who knows what she’s talking about. On an unrelated note, she’s also dating Kayaba-sensei, which the tech department pays attention to because they’re a bunch of gossipmongers with too much free time when they’re not crying over their messy backend code. Despite that, she’s still pretty strict with her students, and yeah, maybe he shouldn’t have skipped her classes, but they are always in the early morning hours and he’s hungry.

“Well, yes, that too.” She says, rolling her eyes. “But you do well enough in my class that you’ll be able to graduate even without attendance points. That said, I’m calling you here today because Kle – a certain someone brought something to my attention.”

Damn it, that meddling Klein. He’s gonna have some very strong words with that guy later.

“Nothing bad, I assure you. It seems that he’s heard something from a few friends. He said that you accepted the position with Kayaba-sensei, but you would prefer to live closer to your…partner, I believe is what he said. I’m not quite sure myself. However, he has asked Kayaba-sensei if something could be done about it.”

Putting Klein’s pitiful attempts at meddling in his – nonexistent, mind, because there’s no way in hell that’ll happen – love life aside, well, yeah, that’s true for the most part. He would prefer it if he could visit and hang out with Eugeo without a two hour commute, because Kirito is an idiot and doesn’t know how to stay away, but how could Klein have known that? He’s never told anyone about it. He nods blankly, and Rinko-sensei continues.

“Kayaba-kun came to talk with me, and he showed me some of the projects you were working on throughout the last few years. They are all quite interesting. How do you feel about the application of FullDive and A.I. technology in human consciousness?”

Kirito drums his fingers on the table and takes a moment, wondering where this is heading to. “Uh, I’m under the impression that there is no technology capable of that to date. The Medicuboid is the closest thing to it, but even it can only monitor and scan the brain, and not exactly consciousness. If such a technology exists, however, it would have great potential. One of my goals in joining Kayaba-sensei’s team is to analyze the technology we currently use to simulate the senses in VR games and apply them to overwriting information in the consciousness directly.”

“Well said.” He’s never seen Rinko-sensei smile ever since he started taking her classes two years ago, but there’s no mistaking the slight curve of her lips. “But, I must correct you on one thing. Such a technology exists. It was invented as a collaborative effort between Kayaba-kun and me two years ago, the 4th generation FullDive technology Soul Translator. It’s owned by the government and under my supervision, in the name of a company called RATH. Our main office is here, in the Science and Technology department. And so, this is why I have called you here today. I’d like to extend a formal invitation for you to join RATH.”

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes after he leaves Rinko-sensei’s office, Eugeo is the first person he calls.

“Kirito, what’s up? It’s not like you to call at this hour. Did you forget your keys again?” Eugeo says through the phone. Kirito takes a deep breath. In a corner of his mind that is completely dissociated from his current freak out, he thinks he should go buy Klein a coffee.

“You won’t believe what just happened to me today.”

 

* * *

 

Since both Alice and Eugeo finished their fourth exams for the semester, and to celebrate Kirito getting a job closer to home, they eat out this weekend instead of cooking at home. Yakiniku, because damn it, Kirito is going to be a big shot government scientist in a month and he can afford to treat his friends to some good food. Eugeo gets drunk after two beers, which is far more entertaining than it should be, and Alice sticks with low alcohol cocktails because she has classes tomorrow.

Anyway, two hours after they dressed up in decent clothes and filed out of the house, Kirito kicks the door open, a drunk and nearly passing out Eugeo leaning on his shoulders and Alice right behind them. Alice tells Kirito to take care of that sad sack of bones they call their best friend and bids them both good night. Eugeo replies with something like ‘mmph’, which is apparently good enough for her, since she just snorts and disappears up the stairs.

“Alright, pretty boy, let’s get you back to your room.” Kirito sighs. Eugeo’s heavier than him, and he’s a little tipsy from the alcohol too. Things are starting to swim in front of his eyes, since he’s pretty sure lamps don’t float. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Kirito…” Eugeo waves his arms around like a blind kitten, nearly poking Kirito’s eyes out. “I can’t see you, where’d you go…”

He rolls his eyes. “I’m right here, you idiot. I can’t carry you, so you’ll just have to walk it off.”

“Exercise. You should exercise, Kirito. I keep telling you…” He mutters something to that effect.

“Yeah, yeah…”

They make their way back to Eugeo’s room first. His room is on the right, next to Kirito’s. Alice’s room is on the other side of the corridor past the bathroom, which is kind of out of the way, so he doesn’t blame her for not staying to help. Three people can’t fit in the corridor anyway, and Kirito takes a moment to dwell on just how much Japan _sucks_ when it comes to space. Somehow, he manages to reach the bed, and then both of them tumble down because Kirito has less strength than a kindergartner.

“Ow…” He manages to get off the bed, but a wave of vertigo hits him and he barely has enough time to grab a chair nearby to steady himself. Eugeo watches from the bed, still sprawled across it like a sack of potatoes.

“Yeah, I’m gonna sit here for a bit.” He mutters to himself. His stomach is rebelling so much that if he opens his mouth further he might puke, and Eugeo would get super mad at him tomorrow.

“Kirito, why are you in my room…?” Eugeo asks in a slurred voice, eyes wide open like a child looking at a zoo animal he’s never seen before. Kirito doesn’t answer for a minute, and instead waits until his stomach calms down and he no longer sees stars out of his eyes.

“Cause I just took you back, idiot. You’re drunk. I’m leaving now, so go to sleep.”

He makes to stand up, but Eugeo has really fast reflexes even when he’s drunk. His fingers hook on the ends of Kirito’s sleeve, and his grip is strong enough that Kirito nearly stumbles backwards.

“Don’t leave. You’re staying, around here, right? I’m happy you’re staying. Didn’t want to lose you…” He says in a tiny voice like a child’s, and Kirito’s heart twists like a pretzel. “I wouldn’t know what to do.”

He swallows. “You’ll do fine, I’m sure. You’re strong, talented, and popular with girls. I’ve never doubted that you’d do well for yourself.”

“No, no, not that.” Eugeo shakes his head. “Well, that, but… see, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that if not for Kirito. I can’t help but want to stay close to you. I told you, right, that I chose to study medicine for my family, but this school, I chose because of you, because you wanted to go here… This house, too, my parents were against it, but you seem to like it so much, that I grew to love it too…”

Kirito doesn’t know what to think about that, so he nods wordlessly and takes Eugeo’s hand in his, running his thumb over his knuckles. His hand is warm.

“I’m glad. It’s been a fun four years, hasn’t it, partner?”

“Hmm, yeah...” Eugeo says, sounding half-asleep. He prays to whatever god is out there that Eugeo won’t remember this conversation tomorrow, because he won’t even be able to look his friend in the eye if he does. “But we’ll stay like this, right? You’ll stay?”

 _With me_ , he doesn’t say, but Kirito hears it loud and clear. “...Yeah.” Kirito smiles. “I’m not picking morning classes ever again though.”

Eugeo laughs. “You’re so bad at keeping your balance, Kirito. But, I’m happy. Because, it’s cute. I dunno. You’re so cool normally, and you never ask anyone for help, so, seeing you like that is… refreshing. Feels nice. I dunno. It’s cute. You’re cute.”

And then he does something Kirito completely doesn’t expect. His hand reaches up and threads through Kirito’s hair, so carefully and gently it’s like he’s afraid Kirito would disappear if he blinked too hard. His eyes, though half-lidded, are soft, looking at him like he’s something precious. Eugeo lets out a small exhale; his lips are slightly open, and -

Kirito abruptly stands up. There’s nothing but white noise and panic in his mind, together with the haze of alcohol, but somehow he manages to make it to the door without stumbling. He wrenches the door open and steps out, not daring to look back for even one second. He doesn’t want to know what will happen, what he’ll see, if he does.

The door slams shut behind him.

 

* * *

 

His fourth Chirashizushi turns out not too half bad. The rose actually looks more like a flower and less like somebody just slapped salmon on top of each other and called it a day. Lisbeth, looking exhausted but satisfied, pats him on the back and tells him that if he needs to cook something in the future, please don’t _ever_ call her again. He shares the cake with Sugu, Sinon and Alice, who tells him it’s passable, meaning she thinks it’s delicious.

Today is April 15th. The semester is rushing to an end faster than a speeding train, and so is their time together. He doesn’t know what to feel about that.

 

* * *

 

This is their last weekly dinner. This week, it’s Kirito’s turn.

Two weeks ago, the day after their yakiniku party, everything went back to normal. Eugeo doesn’t remember, he pretends nothing ever happened, Alice posts pictures of drunk Eugeo on Instagram and gets a few hundred likes mostly from his fangirls. Life is as it always has been.

So yeah, today is the day. He walks to the fridge to check if they wanted him to buy anything at the grocery store. The store is around fifteen minutes away from where they live, so unless it’s something urgent or personal, most of the time they stick a post-it IOU note asking the designated shopper of the week to please buy this and that. Apparently Eugeo wants a pack of fine-tip red Sharpies - probably for grading, that workaholic - and Alice wants Neapolitan ice cream. Typical Alice. Since Kirito is not a gorilla, he takes the shopping cart out of storage and makes his way to the grocery store. An hour later, he pushes the door open to an empty house. Eugeo and Alice are still at school, because classes on weekends are a thing somehow for those majors. The cart is stuffed with shopping bags, which he takes out and puts in the fridge for the time being.

Okay, here we go. It’s the real deal now. Kirito hauls the bag of rice on the counter, takes a deep breath, and thinks he would have been better off giving him chocolate for Valentine’s Day like that horde of fangirls did.

Alice gets home while he’s slicing up the salmon and tuna and waiting for the green beans to cook. The idea was to make simmered vegetables and miso soup as a side to go with the Chirashizushi, and it’s sad that he’s spending far more time and effort on this one dinner than he did for four entire years of college. Kayaba-sensei would be proud. Klein would laugh at him until his stomach hurts. She pats him on the back, her way of wishing him good luck and also telling him how screwed he is, before retreating upstairs. Eugeo comes home one hour later, and he has the gall to look shocked that Kirito is standing in the kitchen actually cooking something.

“Well, anyway, good luck.” He says, looking ridiculously happy once he gets past the initial shock. “I’m looking forward to it!”

Yeah, no pressure, buddy.

But, in all honesty, if someone put a gun to Kirito’s head, he would admit that this doesn’t feel too bad. Just the feeling of cooking in general. It’s relaxing, in a sense, to be standing in the warm kitchen, waiting for the lotus roots and mushrooms to boil, and knowing that he’s actually making someone happy with what limited cooking ability he has. He could really grow to like this. Just, please, not something as ridiculously complicated as Chirashizushi ever again.

Once the rice is done and packed, he sets out to cut the raw salmon and tuna, roll them in a shape vaguely resembling a rose, sprinkle some more lotus roots and ikura on top of the egg’s golden surface, and it’s done. He snaps a picture and sends it to Lisbeth on LINE, who replies with a bunch of party emojis and a ‘Go get him!’ with around ten more stickers. Kirito will never get girls. Anyway, for some reason life decided that he should get a break, because he’s timed it right and finished everything around seven, which is about just in time for dinner.

 

* * *

 

They’re sitting in the living room, swathed in blankets, scrolling through channels and arguing over what to watch tonight. Alice has apparently forgotten to buy snacks from 7-11, so she’s excused herself, but he knows she’s lying because Alice is a horrible liar. It’s all a scheme to get him and Eugeo alone together, so she’ll probably go take a walk outside and come back in half an hour or something. Too bad for her, because Kirito still won’t do it. Even though he has a job closer to home now, even though dinner was great and Eugeo looked really happy, and dare he say it, pretty, when he ate the Chirashizushi like it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted. It may be cowardly of him, but Kirito could die from embarrassment just thinking about it. He won’t.

“So.” Eugeo clears his throat. Kirito nearly jumps out of his skin. “What are you planning to do, after you graduate? You’re staying in the area, right?”

“Y-yeah.” He says. He hopes his voice isn’t shaking too much. “The lease for this place is ending though, so I guess I’ll have to find a new apartment. What about you?”

“Yeah, I’m the same.” His partner sighs. “It’s too bad. I really grew to like this place.”

“Me too. Remember that time I tried to cook and nearly burned Alice’s curtains?”

Eugeo shakes his head and laughs. “I still don’t know how you managed to do that. It’s almost amazing.”

“Hey, it came out edible, didn’t it? I _am_ able to cook once in a while.”

“Yeah, the Chirashizushi tonight was great. I’ve never had something so delicious. Thank you, Kirito.” He says, with such an earnest expression, and Kirito is a liar and a coward, so he doesn’t even have the heart to look Eugeo in the eye. He turns away and prays that Eugeo doesn’t see the red on his face.

“...You’re exaggerating. It’s just normal, really.”

“No, it’s not.” Eugeo shakes his head. “It’s just like you. Simple, but stunning. Especially the rose. I can’t imagine anything else more fitting. I could tell how much effort you put in it, and it…”

He pauses, takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, like he's gearing himself up for something and Kirito knows exactly what it is, because he knows Eugeo better than he knows himself. Off a corner of his mind, the part that isn't either ringing alarm bells or looking for a quick exit to not deal with this _emotions_ crap, Kirito feels that it’s such a shame. Those eyes are so beautiful.

“It makes me love you even more.” He whispers, exhaling like the weight of the world was on that single sentence.

There it goes. He said it. The one thing Kirito’s dreamed about for, like, upwards of ten years. He has sat in the classroom, not paying attention to anything Kayaba-sensei says, just daydreaming about the prospect. He usually imagines it to be much more romantic than this, though. Flowers and blushing faces, there’s going to be fireworks or a candlelit dinner, something to that effect. Now it’s happened, and honestly, he finds that he can’t say or do anything that adequately describes exactly how he feels about the situation.  

_Thank you. That’s very kind of you._

_I love you too, please date me._

_Did I ever tell you your eyes are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever goddamn seen?_

Yeah, none of them fits right somehow.

“...Kirito?”

Eugeo asks, wondering. Illuminated by the light of Tokyo’s nightlife in the distance, his eyes are sparkling like jewels, with as much hope as there is fear. It must have taken him a lot of courage to say it out loud, but Eugeo has always been an infinitely better person than he ever could be. And yeah, Kirito is a liar and a coward, and he’s been whiffing on this for ten years now, but, you know, in the heat of the moment, when thunder and lightning comes, all of that jazz.

So he still says nothing, because his brain, for all of its talents and tech bullshit, is full of dead gaping fish and can’t think of anything to save its life. Instead, he prays that he doesn’t knock his teeth on something and ruin the moment, and reaches his hand out to pull on Eugeo’s collar.

 

* * *

 

“So, hey, uh, if you’re going to stay on campus after all, and you need a roommate…”

“Ah, no, sorry, but I’ll have to refuse.”

“...”

“S-since I’ll be living with my handsome, talented partner! I’m joking! No, wait, please, don’t give me that scary look, I’m sorry!”

**Author's Note:**

> Please pretend the last part said 'and they lived happily ever after' because I was so done with this thing by the time I got to it. I tried to jam in like fifty characters and locations, so that's why it ballooned up to a monster. On an unrelated note I've ridden the Tokyo metro for three days and didn't quite enjoy the experience because I lost my Suica card together with my 500 yen deposit. Well, the rest I had someone to ask, and as usual Google Maps is great since I don't quite remember Shinagawa all that well. What else? Oh, I specifically didn't name the university they all go to, but location- and details-wise, it's based on Tokyo University. But since Tokyo U didn't have a Science department, I based it loosely off the college I went to. 
> 
> As a side note, the Chirashizushi cake is real, and it looks pretty. You can see a version of it on the Today's Menu for the Emiya Family anime, the Chirashizushi episode. It's actually not that hard to make apparently, but I've never done it before. All the other foods, though, I know from experience. The powdered corn soup actually tastes very good. Peach Horoyoi I'm ok with, same with CC Lemon. Yeah, that kind of stuff. 
> 
> Also, I wanted to write some OT3 stuff to varying degrees of success, but mostly I just wanted to flesh out a 'where I think all our characters are going to be if they actually were in a world without all this SAO crap'. It was fun to write, and I hope you enjoyed reading!


End file.
